What was the catalyst for launching Revalue?
I was living in Indonesia, one of the countries with the most expansive regions of tropical forest, directing a nature incubator – essentially a fund that invests in businesses which protect and regenerate nature. A big part of what we did was trying out different ways of placing value on nature – no simple task.
The biggest opportunity for protecting and regenerating nature at a scale that matters for the planet was carbon credits. However, it was clear to me that the early carbon credits were of an insufficient standard and that at some point it was going to blow up–which it subsequently did.
That’s why I founded Revalue – to create radically better carbon credits which avoid, remove and durably store carbon while valuing nature.
Tell us about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers, etc.
Revalue is collaborating with leading on-the-ground operators who protect and restore nature to create radically better carbon credits. These operators are the best in the world, with deep knowledge of the regions, ecosystems, and communities that they work with or in.
Our partnerships with them involve three things: first, we assess the potential of their nature projects and help them to secure investment; next, we help them to certify the credit in line with the highest possible standards; and finally, we channel the credits into the market. Our primary role is to use cutting-edge models and monitoring systems to ensure that each credit corresponds to a minimum of one ton of real-world emissions impact.
Voluntary carbon markets have fairly received their share of critique over the past few years, but the fundamental premise remains sound. We’re resetting the bar and showing what the future of carbon credits looks like. This is something companies and the planet can trust.
How has the business evolved since its launch?
I launched Revalue back in 2022, and since then, the fundamental premise of the business has remained the same: to create the world’s highest quality and most trusted nature-based carbon credits.
At that time, there was still a lot of trust in carbon markets. People were happy buying from the big, traditional players and few people questioned the quality of credits being bought, sold and traded.
Since then, the industry has experienced a reckoning. People began asking serious questions about the value of credits, and discovered that they didn’t always add up to what was on the label. Revalue is not making small improvements to be less bad, but taking fundamentally different approaches which the old guard are uncomfortable or unable to make. We obsess about making sure every credit is at least one ton of real world emissions impact and will keep pushing boundaries to get this right for the planet.
Tell us about the working culture at Revalue
The planet is in crisis, and our mission is to help find a solution. It’s always been—and will always be—mission over ego. And everyone at Revalue is fully aligned on that.
Because of the importance of that mission, we have high performance requirements and hire only the best people. They have to love a challenge, because this problem is extremely hard to solve. It’s an enormous challenge to contend with. As part of that, it’s crucial for our people to remain calm, even when things get hard. Our informal motto has always been ‘Don’t panic’.
How are you funded?
Our first investor was an angel investor and mentor, a man called Morten Rossé. He’s one of the best minds in the space. If you want a human being who deeply cares about nature down to his core, it’s Morten. Our seed round was led by SYSTEMIQ, my former employer, which I owe a lot to, and a leading player in the nature-based solutions space.
We then reached an oversubscribed $10M for our VC-backed Series A, led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF) and SJF Ventures. We couldn’t have asked for two better VCs to come in with aligned visions of what the future looks like. Interestingly, investing in carbon project developers wasn’t originally part of EIF’s plans—until they found us. They said that they had been waiting 15 years to find an organisation doing things differently, and decided to back us.
What has been your biggest challenge so far, and how have you overcome it?
The biggest challenge has probably been combining organisational cultures. The problem we’re trying to solve requires an interdisciplinary approach: we need a variety of people who are experts in different fields, from ecology to artificial intelligence and investment.
Revalue is a platypus as a result of this. A weird creature bringing together different worlds! We have people from all these fields that wouldn’t usually connect with one another. And that means creating a unique, common culture that brings people together who are used to working in very specific ways according to their previous field. The beauty of this is that, while it can make early collaboration a bit tricky, it also sparks breakthroughs that you only make by taking interdisciplinary approaches on the cross-section of previously siloed worlds.
How does Revalue answer an unmet need?
The world needs radically better carbon credits that we can trust, placing real value in nature. Revalue is creating those credits.
What’s in store for the future?
Big things are coming. Revalue is on track to create a new generation of carbon credits that the market hadn’t imagined was possible!
One game-changer from Revalue is avoiding, removing and durably storing carbon with nature all in a single landscape. This maximises impact for the planet at a lower cost per credit produced.
Revalue is also making breakthroughs with the application of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, applied to quantifying and monitoring nature impact. This includes the application of Foundational Models which are at the bleeding edge of AI techniques.
Lastly, we are the first player seeking to combine nature with engineered solutions to produce carbon credits which value our ecosystems while storing carbon for 1,000 years+. This is the future.
What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?
Worry less. If you’re constantly wracked by fears of failure, you’re never going to take the risks required to succeed. You need to care, of course. In fact you need to care extremely deeply about what you do in order to survive as an entrepreneur. But at the same time you need to learn how to let go of the fear and put that energy into building something the planet needs.
And finally, a more personal question: What’s your daily routine, and what rules are you living by at the moment?
The following is what I attempt to do – which is not always what happens!
The alarm goes off at 5:55am and I check the quality of my sleep and recovery; I’m a data nerd. Then I (try to) meditate and, because I live in Bali, I do 15 minutes of Indonesian practice. I’ll go outside to get morning sunlight (I’m a fan of Andrew Huberman). Then it’s two hours of deep work on the toughest thing I’m working on at that moment.
Every other day I try to exercise for an hour – either the gym or jiu-jitsu. Then it’s head down, working into the evening. I’ll eat on the go and maybe take a little break later on in the day, but otherwise it’s head down. And, I know it’s not a sexy thing to talk about, but I often work on weekends, though I try to protect at least one day for proper rest and recovery. In my downtime I’m with my partner Hollie and our two dogs, Albie and Ada!
Stuart Rowland is the founder & CEO of Revalue.
